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This 1980 ‘Spectrum’ radio documentary examines the treatment of a group of conscientious objectors who refused to take
part in national military training. The 13 young men were held on Ripapa (also
known as Ripa) Island, in Lyttelton Harbour near Christchurch, for some months
during 1913. Their treatment was sometimes harsh, and when their case was made public they
were dubbed by the press ‘The martyrs of Ripa’.

The Victoria College Officers’ Training Corps was formed in Wellington in 1910. It
was established partly by the need to train a new generation of officers to
lead and fight in the New Zealand militia. Charles Treadwell was an original
member of the Corps and in this talk he recalls its founding, the different
forms that their training took, and the men he served with.

This film shows a panoramic view of Trentham Military Training Camp, north of Wellington. In the foreground, groups
of men can be seen practising drills. Behind them is the camp; a few permanent
structures surrounded by rows of characteristic cone-shaped tents. Trentham was
where many soldiers of the Main Body completed their brief training.

After being wounded in battle, many Anzac soldiers were shipped to England to
recover. Once their injuries healed, they were sent to convalescent camps
around the country to restore them to fighting fitness. This short film shows
New Zealanders at a convalescent camp taking part in training exercises to
improve their fitness. As the film shows, training was not all hard work, and
they certainly had some fun at the camps.

The New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) required fit, young, trained solders, both to
prepare them for the realities of marching and fighting on the Western Front,
but also to reinforce those who met their deaths there. Many men who were
trained during the First World War had already received compulsory drilling during
junior cadet training at school. The Trentham Military Camp in the Hutt Valley
was opened in 1915 to accommodate and train newly recruited soldiers before
they were sent to Europe, where their training would continue.

“To-day is Taranaki Cup day – the sportsman’s day in Taranaki – and from near and far
worshippers at the shrine of Pegasus will do pilgrimage to the local racecourse
to lay their offerings on the altar of sport.” (Taranaki Daily News, 14 February 1912)

By
1912 signs of militarism in New Zealand - like compulsory military training, and
the commissioning of the battleship HMS
New Zealand - were increasing. In the rural province of Taranaki, however, the
threat of war seemed a million miles away as crowds assembled for the Taranaki
Cup horse race. They are seen here dressed in their finest, parading on the
lawn, meeting and greeting, seeing and being seen. These scenes were quickly
processed and screened at the local Empire Picture Palace, “the home of
intellectual refinement”, the very next day.

Compulsory military training was established in New Zealand in 1909, and by 1912 all boys
aged 14 and over were required to undertake military drills as Senior Cadets.
From the age of 18 to 21 they were required to serve in the Territorial Forces.
In the process boys were turned into soldiers, since the Territorials formed
the recruiting basis of the NZ Expeditionary Force.

This
film shows just how young this element of the Expeditionary Force was. Some
very youthful-looking members of the Canterbury Territorials, and possibly
Cadets as well, are seen marching into Christchurch around 1914.

As part of their full 16-week training course, recruits were given four weeks of
training in drill, artillery and bayonet use at Featherston Military Training
Camp, in the countryside north of Wellington. This film shows Lewis gun
instruction, and fixed bayonet training with straw-filled dummies. A history of
the Trentham Camp recorded how: “The bright blades flickered into the
straw-filled sacks, out again and in again. At each point the men made hoarse
guttural noises, like football war-cries, and when the enemy was presumed to be
dealt with they charged on for a line of trenches. The instructor had overtaken
them... But he scarcely could be heard for the yelling of his men, mingled with
the war-cries of other squads.”